Experiment 0608 - Project: Wyvern
by SwiftShiftGear
Summary: Project: Wyvern, the Space Pirates' hand-crafted magnum opus of a bioweapon. Highly intelligent, powerful, and efficient. What will happen when Samus invades the research frigate this creature is being held on? Take place before Metroid Prime I. Rated T for language, light gore and violence so far.
1. Introduction

A symphony of sound reaches my ears, all too familiar and infuriating. It is the infernal sound of my own personal hell: _clicking, beeping, bubbling, chattering, tapping_, _growling and mumbling_. Either fortunately, or not, I can't decide, I'm awake. Near consistent exposure to the damned stasis liquid allowed my body to build up an almost immunity to it. Instead of rendering me completely comatose, it simply keeps me hovering on the edge of the abyss, a place between conscious and unconscious. The stupid crab-like insects, the Space Pirates, are both intelligent and stupid, however. They're capable of brilliant feats, yet they're do not of recognize me being conscious… so long as I do not think too hard and stay relaxed, at least.

They've let me out before. Oh, yes. Infrequently and rarely for anything I enjoy. I am dumped out of this hellish tank to first be poked and prodded at by scores of them and then to complete menial tasks. "Solve this puzzle," they click. "Run this course," they hiss. "Defeat this drone," they rasp. And after I am done leaping through their hoops, I am stuffed back in the tank and am left to the whims of my own psyche until I am pulled out to do it all again. I can remember nothing else. Only tank, puzzles, test, fight, test, tank. I've given up trying to fight them.

I've been here for what feels like eras. Listening to them mutter about projects and experiments. _Metroids, Lord Ridley, High Command. _Bullshit I couldn't care less about. Sometimes they hiss and click about 'the huntress', whoever that is. I listen to those conversations, they tend to be at least a little humorous; and I have to get a chuckle somewhere. But, I pay special attention when I hear the phrase _"Project Wyvern." _Here's what I know about that project. It's been ongoing for 2.3 decacycles. It's DNA being primarily human, was infused with that of zebesian, space dragon, and Metroid. This altered DNA strand was placed into an egg cell and grown in a lab. This subject came into existence 1.8 decacycles ago, the only successful subject. A female hybrid showing advanced dexterity and intelligence. It has several cybernetic enhancements, mainly to increase learning and adaptive capabilities as well as immune response to optimal efficiency.

I cling to this knowledge because, from what I understand, _"Project Wyvern"_ is me.

**a/n: Tiny little O/C story that I'm writing off and on. This is the introductory chapter so the rest of them probably wont be as monologue-y. **


	2. Chapter 1

**a/n: i decided to sort of revamp this story a little bit. some things are the same. some things are changed and details and things have been added.**

* * *

><p>A screaming siren tore through the air on the lone Pirate Frigate. The huntress had landed on the ship and was easily slaughtering the pirate troops thrown at her. As she made her way through the ship, she noticed that the pirates were becoming more desperate. The wounded who would normally be retreating to lick their wounds kept fighting and when they ran out of ammo, they resorted to clumsy close combat. Nevertheless, she killed them all, as always, and continued to the heart of the ship, slowly making her way down the long hallway.<p>

She was surprised, however, when the door at the end of the hall opened. Scans indicated that the text on the wall read research lab. Three pirates stormed out, but instead of the normal lean muscular forms of the troopers, these pirates were thin; almost sickly so, with little muscular mass to speak of. They carried their weapons instead of having them welded into their limbs and pointed them at Samus. They did not fire immediately but instead, one spoke to her in their hissing, clicking language.

_"We do not wish to fight, huntress. Turn back now, and you will remain unharmed."_

Samus, curious about this new development, did not fire, but charged a plasma shot.

Alarmed, it spoke again, now a bit more panicked. _"Please, we do not wish to fight! We are but scientists! Researchers! We only conduct experiments! Leave this place! There is no one for you to fight here!"_

Samus fired, striking the lead scientist in the chest, killing him instantly. The excess plasma struck his companions causing them to scream in pain before she fired two more shots striking them in the face. She continued to the door, charging a shot as she went.

Prepared for a few space pirates as she walked through the door, she narrowly dodged a plasma cannon blast from another scientist as soon as she walked through the door. It hissed at her angrily and fired again this time landing a glancing blow that made Samus stagger.

_"I knew there was no reasoning with you!" _it screeched. _"I warned them! Well you're not killing me!" _It chuckled ominously. Pressing a button on the console, the tank in the back of the room split open. Green fluid flowed out and down a drain on the floor, a lean figure slipping out with it. It lied limply for a moment, soaked in the liquid, before beginning to stir. A grunt erupted from the creature and fleshy wings twitched and scrambled at the damp floor. An arm twisted and curled from underneath the creature and a hand stretched out, six wickedly curved claws dug into the metal beneath them.

Meanwhile, the scientist had abandoned his rifle for a faster wave pistol, firing rapidly upon Samus in her distraction. She ducked and dodged, slipping behind one of the many counters as the wave beams followed, destroying several beakers and test tubes. The pirate continued to fire as he turned to the figure on the floor and hissed a command to it.

_"Stand, Wyvern! The purpose for your existence, it is time to fulfill it! Strike down the huntress!"_

The figure moved into a crouch, claws on its hind feet shrilly scraping against the metal floors. It was naked and human shaped with dark skin and something that might be similar to hair cascading over its shoulders, both tinged deep violet. It would seem vulnerable if not for the wicked, whip-like tail ending in a razor-sharp, arrowhead point and the sharp edges decorating the spines of its wings. It raised its head to peer warily around the room, revealing a narrow face with translucent scales decorating the bridge of its nose. It stared at the scientist with orange eyes not entirely unlike his own. Its gaze flicked over his form, taking interest in the weapon clutched in his claws, before eventually dismissing him in favor of looking at the counter Samus was crouched behind. A chill ran down its spine and it shook its body, sending excess fluid flying off its skin. The scientist yelled this time, pointing at Samus with his free claw.

_"What are you doing?! Attack the hunteress, now, hybrid!" he commanded._

What Wyvern did next surprised both the scientist and Samus. It narrowed its eyes into a glare and snarled at the insectoid alien, showing off jagged, serrated teeth. Before he could react, it raised the wicked scaled tail and skewered his head with its arrowhead tip. The pirate dropped the wave pistol and his mouth dropped open, making gurgling noises before he fell limp. With a jerk, the tail was removed from his skull and shaken to remove the dripping blood, the scientist's body falling unceremoniously to the floor.

The hybrid kept its gaze locked on Samus. The hunter's arm cannon was glowing with a charged shot at the ready and the visor gleamed in the dim lighting. The hybrid stood from its crouched position and, without looking away from Samus, paced to where the scientist now lay oozing on the floor.

Samus watched carefully as the creature nudged the corpse with a clawed foot before lowering its gaze momentarily to try to remove the scientists bloodied lab coat. Samus watched as it struggled to grip the cloth with sluggish clumsy claws.

Eventually, it reared back with a growl, seemingly in irritation, and lowered its head again to make a second attempt, this time with the assistance of its teeth. Samus couldn't help snorting in the smallest amount of amusement, when it ripped a huge gash in the jacket instead of removing it from the corpse. As if it had forgotten Samus was in the room, the creature looked up at her in alarm. It growled and with a shriek like nails on a chalk board, sprang up and pounced at Samus.

Mildly surprised, but not at all caught off guard the orange clad hunter fired the charged shot she had held prepped for what had felt like an hour, causing the hybrid to scramble back to avoid it, hissing like a serpent and flailing broad wings. It bounded over counters to gain distance before pausing on one and turning to shoot a venomous glare. In a surprising show of higher sentience, the creature reared back on its legs and held out its six fingered hands in what could only be a signal of little ill will. This was countered however, when it spoke clearly, threateningly, in rough Federation mother tongue. "I don't know what kind of creature you are," the words tumbled clumsily past jagged teeth. "But, you will let me pass."

At that moment, the ceiling was torn open and the fearsome space pirate commander, Ridley, swooped into the room.

…

Wyvern's first instinct was to flee. Another part of it rebutted that. Where could it run? The beast filled up half the room. It was currently preoccupied with whatever the orange clad creature was, but common sense told them that the large reptile would devour it quickly. It was unlike any other creature it'd been exposed to. But, it was familiar, at least in pieces; the teeth, the tail, the scales.

The orange creature seemed to forget her as well, turning to point its weapon at the beast. They stared each other down, seemingly completely oblivious to the hybrid's presence. The violet beast spoke first, a mocking, decidedly male tenor that brought chills down Wyvern's spine. It didn't understand anything that was being said at first, but something in its mind clicked, and it knew the language as if it had been speaking it since hatching. Wyvern pondered this for a moment. _Maybe I have…_

"Aran," the dragon growled. "What brings you aboard my frigate? Are you so hungry for death that you seek me out?"

The strange orange metallic creature seemed to understand, as well. _Perhaps they are of similar origin?_

"This ship is in Federation territory," the orange construct growled back, although in a huskier, higher tone. It was calm, but sounded like something was being held back and just barely. The orange cyborg, despite their earlier altercation, seemed like the friendlier of the two. Wyvern began to edge slowly toward it. _It is certainly the least intimidating._

"So it is," the dragon quipped back. He seemed smug. "This isn't a particularly important vessel. I would not be here if not to secure the safety of one our more important experiments. Speaking of which," the dragon turned its head slightly, peering back at her with a massive acid colored eye.

Wyvern flinched and pulled its appendages closer to its torso, freezing in place and staring back at the violet beast in mute terror. It felt crushed under the weight of his gaze. "Hybrid. Come nearer." Something clicked and urged it to move closer, to follow the order it had been given. Quickly, it was overridden by a stronger sense of self preservation and Wyvern instead took several scuttling steps back.

At this, Ridley turned himself fully toward it, anger now filling its eyes. And, it was at this moment the cyborg took the opportunity to open fire at his now exposed back. The resulting roar Ridley released was enough to send Wyvern scrambling away as the violet dragon turned his undivided attention back to Samus.

…

Wyvern was dazzled by the display the two put on. It wasn't as if it couldn't fight, because, oh, could it fight; fighting, hunting, and killing are what she had been hatched for. But, the orange cyborg being and the violet winged reptilian were on a completely different level. Their battle was almost scripted in its perfection.

The reptilian would roar out fiery plasma, but, the cyborg would already be far out of range.

The cyborg shot its energy bolts from its arm and the reptilian would block with his wings.

_Swipe. Dodge. Shoot. Block. Charge. Counter._

Oh, yes. Wyvern was mesmerized. But, not stupid.

Neither of the two beings were its allies. At least, it didn't think so. The violet one was affiliated with the Space Pirates and the orange one threatened her with the beam. And, looking at the battle raging just overhead, it was clear the beam wasn't anything it wanted to get hit with. Wyvern needed to make its escape as the battle raged and not a moment after would do.

There were two obvious exits. The first was the door to the rest of the ship. It was closed and opening it would likely attract attention. _I do not even know if it will open at all, _thought Wyvern. It looked up. Above, was the second escape route: the hole the fearsome violet one entered through. If it could get through it, it would be on the upper deck of the frigate. The problem, however, was getting to the hole without being spotted and attacked by either creature. Wyvern would have to fly to get anywhere near it and although its wings would normally carry it up and through the massive gouge in the ceiling in mere seconds – it wriggled them, and they were slow to respond – unfortunately, they were still numb; a temporary side effect of being suspended in the stasis liquid. They would do, but flight would be sluggish and awkward. _Too slow. I'll be caught in an instant. It must be the door._

The hybrid pressed its body close to the floor and slid towards the door. Slipping from behind counters and tables, she gave the combatants a wide berth as their battle raged on.

Samus leapt away from Ridley's gaping maw each time he tried to scream fire at her. Her scanners were trying to locate the humanoid being that had disappeared once she engaged the space dragon. Judging from the short interaction she'd seen it have with the Space Pirate commander, it didn't seem to be working with the Space Pirate, but that didn't mean it wasn't hostile. Her visor flashed two alerts at once. The humanoid was behind her rapidly moving away and-!

Samus leapt to her left and narrowly avoided being speared by Ridley's arrowhead tail. She hissed in pain. It had grazed her side. There'd be a nasty bruise there, but no real damage was done other than a dent in the suit's side.

Ridley followed up his glancing blow with another stream of fire. That was Samus's opening. Instead of dodging and landing in one of his claws as he was expecting, Samus charged head first to Ridley's face, charged plasma shot at the ready. She shoved her arm canon into his mouth and before he could properly react, shot a huge ball of superheated plasma into his throat. Ridley screeched in agony and Samus pulled back before he could snap his fangs down on her arm.

"_Aran!" _he roared, his voice barely intelligible. He was bleeding heavily, nearly black blue blood welling up from some place behind his teeth and gushing out of the hole in his throat. His tongue lolled out slightly as his wings beat furiously. _"I'll rip your eyes from your head for that!"_

Samus didn't respond. She laid out suppressing fire, hammering his face and torso with plasma shots. Ridley screamed again, his left eye a bloody mess and his body littered with slash like burns. He made one last charge at the huntress who charged up another shot. Before they could meet however, he swooped up suddenly, arcing out of the huntress's range smoothly and slipped out of the hole he entered through, still spitting curses as he disappeared from view.

The huntress stared up after him before turning towards the now damaged laboratory door. Her scans indicated the hybrid was still onboard the frigate. Judging from the state of the door, it could not be opened and the creature instead tore open a hole through the metal door and crawled out. There was a small amount of dark blue blood at the edges of the hole and a few drops down the hallway. Samus considered this for a moment before assuming morph ball form and rolling out of the room, following the light trail of blood.

Wyvern crept through the frigate as silently as possible, occasionally stepping over fallen corpses as it went. Suddenly, it stopped, listening intently, senses on edge. When it escaped the laboratory sector, the sounds of battle still rung throughout the frigate. Roaring and clashing and cursing and screaming had filled the entire vessel. Now, it was silent again. She could hear nothing but the whirring of the ships components, the hissing of the ventilation system, and her own sharp breaths. The battle was over.

Wyvern began moving, dashing through the halls. It didn't know where it was going exactly, but kept moving, hoping for an exit.

It didn't know the battle's outcome. The best scenario would be creatures destroying each other. At worst, whoever won was now pursuing it. In that case, better the cyborg than the violet one. The reptilian would likely destroy her in an instant; the cyborg might be beatable, or at least escapable.

The hybrid turned a corner and paused to rest, nursing its scratched hands. In its desperation to escape, it had ripped and tore at the locked door until it managed to make a hole to squeeze through. As a result, its fingertips were bleeding where claw met flesh and the sides of its torso oozed blue blood where the wiring and jagged bits of metal slashed its sides when it had forced its way through.

The hybrid breathed heavily as it watched its own augmented immune system work its magic. Its fingers tingled as the nano-machines in its blood stitched the tiny wounds closed. It examined its side, tiny clear scales were now covering the scratches there, blood still oozing up out of the gash, albeit a bit slower now. The gruesome sight of the liquid congealing and spreading like a particularly gelatinous bruise made the hybrid's lip curl.

Immediately, it stiffened. _What's that noise?!_ It sounded like…_Rolling? _Its brow furrowed. _The reptile wouldn't move like that. It stomped around… The cyborg? No. It was bipedal._

Before the experiment had time to react, an orange metallic orb rolled out from around the corner and paused in front of it. It stared at the orb. The orb didn't move. The brightly colored sphere was about a meter wide with glowing green streaks engraved on its surface. Wyvern watched it carefully, it seemed relatively benign. It made no further move towards the hybrid. Hesitantly, it shifted down into a crouch to examine it. It was the same color as the cyborg, but much smaller. _Perhaps a drone? I don't see any defensive or offensive weaponry on it._

Curiously, she reached out to touch it, claws making a clicking sound as they met the smooth surface. The orb didn't respond. Wyvern could feel energy, pure and simple, pulse under its cold metal surface. The thought of energy made the creature's stomach twist with a foreign feeling but, it pushed it down. Wyvern nudged the sphere again to get it rolling but it wouldn't budge.

After a moment's deliberation, it picked the sphere up. It was odd and clunky to carry, its weight resting awkwardly on its sixth fingers, but it thought, in a pinch, the orb might make a good distraction should there be any more Space Pirates on the frigate.

The sphere didn't make any sort of protest, if it even could. _It doesn't seem sentient…_

Wyvern stood to its full height and continued along through the frigate's cold empty hallways.

When she found the creature, Samus's initial impulse was to drop a bomb and shift out of her morph ball to finish the job if that didn't kill it. But its expression stopped her. The mixture of curiosity and fear on its face stopped her. It didn't attack her, but instead simply stood there staring at her morph ball form. She thought back to the way it seemed to resent the Space Pirates enough to kill the scientist and how it cringed away from Ridley in fear. It spoke as well. Its main priority seemed to be escaping not attacking.

Samus decided to watch what it decided to do.

She didn't move when it crouched down.

She didn't move when it touched her, although she was significantly more tense.

It tried to roll her but, she resisted the tentative shove and stayed in place.

It watched her again with a look of child-like curiosity. Its nose, covered in tiny scales wrinkled slightly as it regarded her with what might have been a raised eyebrow, if the scaled plating above its eyes could be called that. Samus decided to see what it would do.

Therefore, when the strange humanoid creature picked her up, Samus squashed the urge to come out of morph ball form and attack and allowed herself to be carried down the frigate hall.

…

Wyvern had never been more uncomfortable in its entire existence and it had only really tasted freedom for a few precious minutes. The strange metal energy orb was weighing heavily in its arms, it was almost unbearably cold on the frigate and its bare feet were aching from walking on the cold metal floors. Already, Wyvern almost missed the warm, soothing embrace of the stasis liquid that held it captive in darkness for so long.

Not to mention, the curious aching feeling in its gut had now transformed into a borderline burning sensation; that was the most irritating. In all its time alive it had never felt this… The hybrid couldn't even put a name to it. It glanced down to the orb, narrowing its eyes. _The feeling gets worse whenever I look at it. Perhaps it's this… this orb's doing?_

It peered cautiously out of the massive windows that lined the walls of the room it was now in. It was round and tall with several computers and seats lining the walls and a large table in the center that was flashing lights. It padded over to the table, intrigued. Some sort of monitor made up the entire upper surface of the table with no visible buttons or dials. It adjusted the orange sphere so that it was supported by both one hand and the edge of the table and pressed its free palm to the monitor. The monitor glowed brighter before a huge hologram filled with stars and planets and all manner of objects engulfed almost the entire room. It lifted its arrow-tipped fifth lib and used it to tap a glowing yellow blip in the holographic sea of green. The image pulsed and zoomed in on the object, some sort of ship. Upon closer inspection, the hybrid could see the ship was divided into several sectors as well as several pods leaving the ship. There was also a smaller ship docked in the first sector. Clearly, Wyvern had wandered into some sort of observation deck.

Suddenly, its gut contorted in another, more intense wash of pain and it was hyper aware of all of the energy in the room. The whole room was filled with lifeless electrical energy from the hologram, but the orb pulsed with a livelier sort of vitality that pulsed and twisted to some unknown heartbeat. The hybrid set it gently on the floor. It stepped backwards away from the sphere, massaging the soreness in its arms away as it did. The pangs didn't subside, which contested Wyvern's previous theory but it was still wary of it. It didn't react when it had been set down, reaffirming the creature's suspicions that it was not sentient.

And then, the creature realized something. _This orb is the same color as the cyborg. Perhaps it's a drone whose goal was to drain my energy? That would explain it…_

Another wave a pain, more agonizing than before, coursed through Wyvern's abdomen and its ears began ringing. It was quiet at first but then began rising in volume and pitch. The hybrid tried not to focus on it, but the more it was ignored the louder it became until it was almost deafening and the pains became unbearable. The observatory, which before was merely cool, now felt positively frigid. The hybrid shivered as the ringing became louder and with a groan, fell to its knees clutching its abdomen. Its bladed tail lashed back and forth and a wave of expletives slipped past its gritted teeth.

Wyvern closed its eyes and placed its forehead against the icy silver floor, releasing short sharp breaths; the pain was maddening. An unexpected sound rang through the room over the low din of the ringing and the hologram humming; a combination of a clash and a sizzle. And then, there was quiet even clanking gradually moving closer, footsteps. Wyvern's tail lashed back and forth wilder now, panicked. It was going to be recaptured if it didn't get away, but it couldn't move. The hybrid struggled to regain its breath and curled its tail up in a threatening arc towards the sound. It forced its feet under it and lifted its head to shoot a menacing look at whatever dared approach.

To the creature's great surprise, it was the orange cyborg leveling its cannon arm at the bladed tip of its tail. Wyvern was sure it would have lost the battle with the purple beast. It bared shark teeth at the cyborg and glared, a deep growl emanating from its throat. The deep violet scales that made a trail down its spine raised themselves, becoming a row of short sharp spikes along the curve of its arched back. "Go. Away," the hybrid gritted out.

Without waiting for a reaction to her threat, Wyvern struck with its tail, like a scorpion.

The orange creature fired a missile in response. It hit the arrow-tip of Wyvern's tail head on, exploding on impact.

Wyvern released an agonized scream in response as royal blue blood dripped to the floor. It scrambled around to the opposite side of the hologram table, now absolutely horrified at the cyborg's knowledge of its weak points. And, it might have made it to cover if not for a streak of warm energy wrapping around its now damaged tail-blade. Wyvern's clawed finger tips scrambled for purchase as she was dragged back but with its panicked flailing attempts, its claws couldn't pierce the hard metal floor. It looked back and saw a golden stream of light connecting its tail with the cyborg's arm cannon, pulling it closer to the cyborg and further away from the safety of cover. Wyverm flinched as the orange being's glowing green visor flashed.

Despite all its flailing, the hybrid ended up at Samus's feet and was now cowering, its body curled in a fetal position and its wings wrapped around itself like shields. She narrowed her eyes. Keeping a careful eye on the hybrid itself, Samus snatched up its tail, careful not to touch the blade, she made sure the tail couldn't stab her. Her touch caused the creature to protest violently, thrashing and hissing at her. Samus stomped down, pinning the creature's wing and one of its hands to the floor and forcing it to lay still on its side. She trained her cannon at its head. It was cowed instantly, taking short rapid breaths and peering up at her with a glare.

The armor clad bounty hunter trained her scanners on the creature, taking in its many odd features. Its general form seemed to be hominid based in shape. But, beyond the obvious differences – the wings and tail and scales – there were other subtle differences. Its fingers – it had six on each hand – were tipped with wicked curved claws and somehow oddly jointed. Its feet were oddly shaped, longer than any human's and it noticeably only stood and walked on the balls of its feet, much like the Space Pirates did. Unlike the Space Pirates, the hybrid had dewclaws on its heels.

The creature also seemed to have stopped breathing, despite its obvious alertness.

The fear on its face was now replaced with annoyance and a look of discomfort. It seemed to recognize that it had her attention and huffed up at her.

"Are you quite finished?" it drawled sarcastically. It squirmed under her armored foot. "Can you understand?! Release me!" Then, it snarled, flashing its teeth. Samus regarded it carefully, but made no move to let it go.

"Intelligent," quipped Samus to herself. The hybrid snorted. "What is your title?"

It narrowed its eyes and hissed again, but when Samus put more pressure on its wing it snapped out, "Experiment 0608. Codename: Project Wyvern. Now, release me, cyborg!"

Samus regarded it carefully. "If I release you, you cannot flee or attack. Do you understand?" she intoned monotonously. It cocked its head at her, as if considering her words.

"You… are not a Space Pirate, yes?"

"I am a free-lance bounty hunter. Currently affiliated with the Galactic Federation."

It blinked and seemed confused. "…Not a Space Pirate?"

"No."

The hybrid seemed to visibly relax at this information. "I want to leave here. I do not wish to stay. I will not harm you if you release me, cyborg."

Samus did not respond. The hybrid spoke again, desperate now. "I wish to leave this frigate. Allow me to leave."

"I can't. You are not registered as any recognized species in the Federation database," replied Samus. Gesturing to the hybrid's wings, she continued, "and you appear to have the DNA of several dangerous species."

"I have done nothing!" the creature snapped. "I haven't left this place in my entire existence! I haven't harmed anything!"

"You attacked _me,_" Samus said pointedly.

"You attacked first! I merely defended myself, cyborg! If anyone's a threat it's you! You and that reptilian thing!"

That set off a spark of anger in Samus. "Enough," she snapped, her gun arm now pointed steadily at the hybrids chest. Its mouth shut with a click of teeth and it flinched. "Tell me what you know about Ridley's location."

The hybrid looked fearful and confused. "…What?"

"The space dragon. Ridley. Commander of the Space Pirates," barked Samus, her patience dwindling quickly.

"The reptilian? Nothing!" Samus's cannon began to glow and Wyvern thrashed violently underfoot. It growled insistently, "I don't know anything! Why would I lie about that? I don't even like the Space Pirates."

"_Well, that's quite a shame, experiment," _hissed a malevolent voice. _"Because we'll be spending quite a lot of time together in the future, methinks._

The floor beneath Samus and Wyvern, was ripped open and once again, the fearsome space dragon Ridley appeared, grinning viciously.

…

Innumerable Space Pirates poured into the observation deck from the huge tear in the floor. Suddenly, Samus and Wyvern found themselves faced with the formidable Space Pirate commander and a small army. The crab-like soldiers clicked and hissed menacingly raising their weapons at the bounty hunter and the experiment. Samus raised her canon in turn as Wyvern attempted to twist underneath the metal clad foot pinning her to peer back at her former captors.

Ridley spoke, his voice easily thundering over the dull roar of his subordinates as he hovered overhead. _"Ah, Aran,"_ he purred. _"Thank you for securing such a valuable piece of tech for us."_ Wyvern released an indignant snarl at this. He chuckled, baring his teeth back at the hybrid. "_Project Wyvern is like my very own fledgling, you see. Perhaps I'll allow you to leave this place in one piece, for its return."_

The hybrid jerked under Samus's foot, a baleful scowl now trained up at the bounty hunter. Samus stared back down for a moment before glaring back at Ridley, her visor now glowing brighter. The space dragon glowered back.

They stayed like this for just a moment, the three of them all waiting for the tension to break as Ridley's small army snapped and sneered with mindless bloodlust.

Suddenly, Ridley lunged for the two, having grown tired of the wait. Samus reacted instantly, firing super-heated glowing plasma straight at Ridley's gaping maw, before grabbing the hybrid's tail, dragging it along as she dodged to the side. They were allowed a brief reprieve as Ridley screamed in pain clutching his throat. Samus trained her cannon at the fearsome dragon as Wyvern pushed to its feet, panting. Wyvern glanced at Samus, watching her carefully for a moment, before saying, "Much thanks." Samus offered her a curt nod.

The Space Pirates surged forward as their leader released a screeching war cry and took to the air again, preparing to dive bomb the duo. They both dodged in opposite directions, Samus shooting a missile at the dragon's face and Wyvern gliding away to put as much distance as possible between itself and Ridley. Snarling in rage, he chose to pursue Samus, screaming fire at the hunter as his claws scraped at the floor.

The Pirates, numbering at least twenty, all focused on recapturing Wyvern who was using their desire to capture it undamaged to its advantage. It bounded around their attempts to stun it with weapons and slipped away from the occasional grapple and tore through them like tissue paper. The pirates were caught completely off guard as what they expected to be a simple capture turned into a slaughter as Wyvern managed to avoid most of their attacks – either that or it was simply completely unaffected – and strike them down in turn, releasing terrifying roars as it went.

Its claws dug in between the miniscule gaps in their armored segmented hides and ripped off bits of exoskeleton in a frenzy to tear at the soft flesh that lay beneath. It was a slow process, but the moment blood met Wyvern's teeth as it delivered a particularly savage bite to a commando's throat, it decided that it was worth it. Raw pure energy poured in through the experiment's veins and for a moment, it wasn't thinking. The pirate's screams, though deafening and all around it, eventually faded and all Wyvern could hear was the dull thrum of pulsing energy.

Wyvern's only drive was to eat.

Meanwhile, Samus was having some difficulty driving off Ridley, who seemed to be more on point than usual, dodging her beam and missile strikes before she could even fire them and blocking all her attempts to dodge his attacks, releasing sinister peals of laughter all the while.

She grunted as he raked his long claws along her side, sending her stumbling back, slamming into the cold steel wall. He slammed his hand into her torso, pinning her there as he leaned his face close to her own. He laughed and his breath fogged up her visor. It was then, with the dragon staring her straight in the eye, Samus noticed the faint robotic red glow in his left eye. She attempted to aim her cannon at him again, but, he merely snatched it away, using his claws to slowly spear through the beam cannon and subsequently, her arm. Samus barely managed to stifle a scream and her visor flashed an alert. _Arm Cannon: Offline._ She felt her own blood ooze stickily down her limb and flow between her fingers. The bounty hunter hissed with a sickening squish as the dragon removed his claws, jostling her now broken arm in the process. _"Such a pity,"_ he hummed, clearly pleased with himself. _"A simple visual augmentation and the great Samus Aran is reduced to nothing more than predictable simpering child."_ He chuckled. _"Pathetic."_

He slammed her against the wall again and again, laughing all the while. As Samus's vision began to blur and blood dribbled down the back of her neck, Ridley suddenly released a scream and dropped her, just as her consciousness was beginning to fade. She fell to the floor with a heavy thud, attempting to regain her wits. More out of instinct than any real thought, she curled into a morph ball and rolled a short distance away, narrowly avoided being crushed under Ridley's feet as he released a thundering howl and turned, now thoroughly distracted and enraged. Suddenly, his roar was cut off into a pained squealing shriek and he stomped as he thrashed in pain.

A sound more akin to an angry scream than a menacing roar echoed back in response. Samus saw through a haze of energy, standing amidst a spattering of green blood and desecrated chewed up Space Pirate corpses and dusky husks, the blurry form of the experiment glaring heatedly up at Ridley. It was standing on the balls of its feet, slightly hunched forward with hands curled into fists at its sides. Its wings fully extended behind it thrashed and lashed at the air and a snarl curling its lips. The bladed tail, curled around in front of it, shined with blood as gore dripped from its tip. It had a pirate's rifle, doubtlessly cruelly ripped from its position welded to its previous owner's claws, hanging between its wings by a single frayed strap. The experiment was covered head to toe in the blood of a score of pirates. A long tongue snaked out from between bared teeth to swipe up some of the sticky green fluid.

Ridley snarled at her, one hand cradling a bleeding gash in his side and the other covering his now heavily damaged robotic optic. His good eye widened in surprise before narrowing into a golden glowing slit. _"You dare?!" _he spat.

The experiment hissed in return, crouching forward on all fours, arching its back and flapping its wings hard once. "I do," it snapped back.

Ridley growled and lunged at the creature and it darted forward, slipping underneath him easily. As it passed, the cruel dagger tipping its tail ripped open a new tear in his abdomen. As the dragon howled, writhing in pain and clutching at his guts as they oozed from the deep wound, Wyvern made its way to the bounty hunters side.

Samus stared back as Wyvern's gaze swept calculatingly over the shape of the morph ball taking in the sparking bits - a sign of her damaged power suit – with a keen stare. Guarded gold-orange eyes flicked over to the wall, then back to the morph ball, and finally back to Ridley, who had recovered from his newest wound. Wyvern's eyes flickered back to the bounty hunter for a mere second before returning its gaze back to Ridley. He hissed at the experiment and as he lunged Wyvern made its move.

The hybrid could feel Ridley's breath on her heels as it scooped up Samus's morph ball form and made a beeline for the ventilation shaft in a single smooth movement. Wyvern felt the wind behind a swipe of Ridley's claws just narrowly missing as its tail slipped into the opening. Ridley watched the vents for a moment longer, before releasing a sinister chuckle that erupted into a full-blown maniacal cackle. His laugh cut off abruptly as he glared at the place Wyvern disappeared into again, now with an air of amused arrogance coming off him in waves.

"_Well, well, well."_ He snickered_. "How unexpected. To think a mere child, a fledgling, could hold its own against me. Tell me, brat, do you know who I am? What I am to you?"_

There was no response.

"_Around forty percent of your DNA came from me, do you know what that means?" _he purred.

There was now the sound of distant scrabbling against metal growing distant along with the sound of something rolling along.

"_Of course you do. You are quite the intelligent child, after all, no? After so many failures, to think the only success would be such a perfect creature."_

"_I like you, fledgling."_ He spread his wings with a curt laugh. "_We will meet again soon,"_ he promised. He leapt into the air and, with a twist and a stream of fire, dived through the thick glass of the observation deck walls and disappeared from sight.

Wyvern rolled Samus's morph ball along in front of it. The ventilation shafts more or less felt safe. At least, much safer than the wide open space. Eventually, the two came to a grate. A chill flooded through Wyvern and it snorted. The experiment moved to drag the orb back the way they came but it resisted. It tilted its head, "No place to go. I can't move it. Let's find a way around." A clawed hand made to move the morph ball again, and again Samus wouldn't be budged.

Instead, the morph ball spawned a tiny little device. It beeped once, and Wyvern made a noise of confusion. Twice, and Wyvern skittered backward, realizing what exactly the little device was. Thrice, and the little bomb exploded, blasting the grate to pieces, and sending bits of dust and debris floating everywhere. The morph ball rolled out of the vent without hesitation, and Wyvern followed, sputtering and coughing.

The lopsided morph ball shape shifted into Samus's damaged powersuit as she landed and she watched warily as Wyvern glided down landed gracefully in a crouch a good several meters away. Gold met silver as the two stared each other down.

Samus regarded the hybrid carefully before gesturing to herself. "Samus Aran." She extended her hand.

Wyvern blinked at the hand before reaching out unsurely, to grasp it. "Wyvern," it said simply.

Samus shook her hand and nodded. "I have a ship. Follow me." She walked away.

Wyvern cocked her head, peering from its hand to the huntress's retreating back hesitantly. Within moments, it shadowed Samus, deciding that following the strange orange clad being was the safest option as it leapt from arch to arch.

Eventually, the two stumbled upon a little bright orange ship, a mere blip on the massive frigate. Without hesitation, Samus performed an impressive, energy filled leap and landed on the very top of the orange pod and the moment she landed, the ship responded. Wyvern watched carefully from atop a some sort of outer support.

The ship opened up and as Samus descended into the opening she made a gesture. Wyvern took it to mean 'come.'

The hybrid leapt into the air and after circling over the ship, peering down over the opening like a crow over a wounded beast, before it dove down and entered the ship.

…

It was dark in the strange tiny ship. My eyes adjusted relatively quickly, but, I still could not see much. I heard the android's voice. At least, I think I did. It sounded less… robotic. "Computer, defensive maneuver epsilon."

I didn't have much time to muse on this. I felt something moving behind me and before I could relax, something had my wing. "Graaahgh?!" was the only sound I could manage before my other wing was seized. Then, my tail. Then, my left arm. In a panicked haze, I spotted something moving closer as I was dragged back. It wasn't the android. It was far too small and lithe and from what I could tell, it was leveling some sort of weapon at me. "Computer, power on."

And, with those words, the tiny pod flared to life. And I was temporary blinded again, this time by light. I hissed and when I opened my eyes again, a human was standing in front of me.

I'd seen a few in the past. They'd been tests. They were thrown into a cage with me, all broken limbs and wild, scared eyes. They attacked me sometimes, uncoordinated and afraid. Those ones died. Others just curled in on themselves. I killed those ones, too, after a bit of… encouragement.

But, this human, while one of its limbs were damaged, was at a severe advantage. It had a weapon, and I was bound. I growled at it. It narrowed its icy grey-blue eyes at me and in a sharp voice, "Computer, tranquilize."

I felt something pierce my hide somewhere around my spine. The sensory organs in my wings went into over drive before my vision blurred and eventually faded to black.

* * *

><p><strong>an: thanks for reading!**


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